


Lapping At The Shore

by throneofblades



Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo, The Language of Thorns - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: M/M, Merpeople, farm au, farmer!jesper, is that a thing bc idk, merman au, merman!wylan, wesper
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:55:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23065831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/throneofblades/pseuds/throneofblades
Summary: “Why?”“It’s...complicated,” he said nervously.“And you’re cute,” Jesper winked.Jesper doesn’t end up going to Ketterdam for University right after high school, instead, he works on his father’s farm. One day, he hears a splash of water while walking down a fog shrouded beach at dawn...
Relationships: Jesper Fahey/Wylan Van Eck
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19





	Lapping At The Shore

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this work is gonna be complete depending on my creative ability and free time since i'm in my final year of school and don't have many brain cells left.  
> feel free to visit this when it's done (i'm aiming for before the end of 2021).  
> **(also some of the dialogue is v cringy, i'm going to edit everything once it's completed.)

The receding waves lapped at the shore gently, and the sun had not yet fully risen. It would have been a beautiful sunrise, had the fog not made everything invisible. Jesper walked down the shoreline, kicking bits of seaweed out of the way as he went. The seagulls cawed as the sun rose further, and Jesper focused on the different variations of shells in the wet sand.

A splash somewhere further down on the beach made him look up, but the early morning fog blocked his view. Cautiously, he made his way down the beach, closer to where the splashing sound had come from. The mists cleared for a moment and he saw a slender boy laying at the edge of the shore. The boy’s hair was wet, slicked back by the water, and he was leaning against his elbows as he watched the sun rise over the waves.

To his shock, Jesper realised that the part of the boy resting in the water was a tail. He had found a mermaid. Then the ruddy haired boy looked up, and noticed him. With a panicked yelp, the boy dived back into the water and Jesper was left staring at the spot the mermaid had been.

After standing on the beach for a good five minutes, Jesper realised there was nothing else to do but go home. He trekked his way back up the beach to the path his horse was waiting on.

Amna stood there waiting for him, snorting and (digging up sand with its hooves), clearly unimpressed at being left tied to a tree for so long. Jesper fed her some roasted chestnuts from his pocket and stroked her before climbing onto her back. The whole fourty minute ride home, he was distracted by thoughts of the mermaid. Had he really seen one? He has heard tales of mermaids, such as the Fjerdan one about Uma and her magic, but he didn’t know anyone who had seen a mermaid before. He supposed it was because he lived on a farm, and most of the stories he heard were about the jurda flowers and impossible heroes. But his mother had always said, “there’s a little truth in everything, Jesper” and maybe she was right.

After all, she was the one who had told him most of the stories. She was a well travelled woman who came back home to visit her family, when she had met his father and fell in love. When he was younger, maybe six or seven, he would bombard her with questions after every new story, and then some. He remembered after hearing about the story of Uma, or as his mother has called it “As The Water Sang Fire,” since she had learnt the story from a friend during her travels, he had asked her questions like:  
“Was Uma happy in her cave, by herself?”  
“Was she angry?”  
“What about mermaids, do they come to Novi Zem too?”

His mother had patiently answered his questions, and to the last one, she laughed and said, “no, they prefer the waters around Fjerda. It’s much colder there, better for their scales.”

If what his mother said was true, what was a mermaid doing on the shores of Novi Zem?

***

That week, he went back to the beach each morning. But the mermaid never appeared. Until one day, the beach was shrouded in fog again. Jesper could barely see his own hands in front of him, but he continued on. This time, he walked further down the shore and then saw a figure in the distance, on the edge of the northern shore. He got closer and noticed the boy was staring at the sky again, this time with sleepy eyes.

He stopped a few metres away and then cleared his throat. The mermaid looked up. “Uh,” Jesper said, then realised he didn’t know what to say. “Hi, I’m Jesper.”

The mermaid eyed him warily, and looked ready to dive back into the water so Jesper rushed out, “wait!” The mermaid paused, and looked at him again, his tail thumping lightly against the sand. Then disappeared.

Jesper sighed, then decided he might as well walk the whole way down before he walked back. So he did, trying to clear his mind. He would try again next week.

***

“You don’t give up, do you?”

The voice came from behind him, and Jesper glanced back to see the merman sitting on the edge of a series of rocks half-submerged in water. His tail thumped lightly against the rock he was perched on.

Jesper smiled, “no, i don’t seem to have.”

“So, why haven’t you brought any other humans with you?”

Jesper frowned. “Why would I?”

The mernan cocked his head to the side curiously, “humans are pack hunters, aren’t they?”

“Hm, I don’t know. Maybe we were once.” He paused conderingly, “I suppose some are, and some aren’t. My father isn’t really, though he doesn’t mind.” then, “are mermaids not?”

“Some are. I’m not.” the merman replied, still eyeing him curiously.

“Why?”

“It’s...complicated,” he said nervously.

“And you’re cute,” Jesper winked.

The merman looked taken aback for a moment, then laughed. The laugh brightened his features and made him look ethereal against the backdrop of the waves at dawn.

“You know that only works in stories, right?”

“Stories?” Jesper laughed, “do you mean the one about Uma? That’s the only merpeople story I heard, apart from the ones sailors bring back and tell when they’re almost too drunk to think.”

“And what stories do they bring?”

“Stories of mermaids laying on the frozen beaches of Fjerda, how a group of merpeople tried to sink their ship, or steal their cargo, or stories of sirens in the stormy waves and melodies calling them off their ships, into the waters.”

The merman in front of him looked thoughtful, “ship sinking happens occasionally, when merpeople are at risk of humans discovering their homes, and sometimes to steal a ship's cargo, but the rest are false. We are quite private people with families and businesses, we do not often have time to lay around on beaches or sink ships for fun.”

“Huh,” Jesper said, “and what about the story of Uma? When The Water Sang Fire?”

The merman paused, then asked, “how do you know that name?”

“Uma?” Jesper said, confused.

“No. ‘When The Water Sang Fire’ is a name only the Western Sea merpeople give to the story of Uma, how is it that you know it?”

“Oh, my mother used to travel all around the continents. She would tell me all the stories she heard and her own adventures when I was younger.”

“What was her name?”

“Aditi,”

“May I meet her?”

Jesper looked away, “she passed away a few years ago.”

“Oh,” the merman said awkwardly, looking down at his fingers and then away. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

“It’s okay, it couldn’t be helped.” Wylan looked up at that, so Jesper added wryly, “burnt both ends of the grisha candlestick, pa’s been paranoid for me since she did.”  


“Oh.” Wylan said, lifting his tail and sending a wave that lapped at the shore as they sat in a comfortable silence, Wylan gazing at the green hills and Jesper at the horizon of the seemingly insurmountable ocean.


End file.
